Keeping our community safe and clean is a team effort, but it wouldn’t be possible without our dedicated garbage collectors. Every week, these hardworking individuals visit homes and businesses to collect and dispose of accumulated trash. But have you ever wondered what happens to all that trash once it’s hauled away? In tonight’s episode of Belize on Reel, we dive into the fascinating world of wooden pallet recycling and uncover the incredible effort that goes into transforming trash into treasure. Join News Five’s Britney Gordon as she reports on this inspiring story.
For most people, garbage day is just another chore—taking out the trash before the truck arrives. But for some, it is the highlight of the week. For the past eight years, Melany Yestrau has poured her heart into transforming discarded wooden pallets into beautiful furniture that will soon find a forever home.
Melany Yestrau, Carpenter
“I’ve been doing this since 2017. Started with my brother, and that got me hooked into this, and now I don’t know how to unhook myself out of this pallet business, recycling business, which I’ve fallen in love with, and which I’ve fallen off, and I’m trying to get back up again.”
Wooden pallets are usually just used to store, transport, and deliver goods before being tossed aside. But for Yestrau, a carpenter by trade, these planks hold the potential for beauty. Her yard, which doubles as her bustling workstation, is packed with her works-in-progress. According to Melany, these pallets can be transformed into almost anything.
“ Hmm, what, the things that I make? There’s lots. We do wine racks, beds, podium, as you see, pantry. A chair with a little table. We do everything, anything, anything.”
All of Melany’s pallets come from Efrain Miller, the owner of Ladyville Sanitation Engineers. Every Tuesday, Miller’s team makes their rounds to various businesses to collect waste. He estimates that they gather around three hundred and fifty pallets among the trash, which he then generously donates for repurposing.
Efrain Miller, Owner, Ladyville Sanitation Engineers
“What happened is that people requested every time we got, we have it. And rather than have it and take it to the transfer station just to dump it, I prefer to give people to help them, whether they want to build a playhouse for their child, or they want to build chairs, or tables, or doghouse, whatever they want to do with it, I prefer for people to have it so that they can utilize it, use it to the best of what they have.”
Miller shares that people often request other recyclable items like zinc, tires, and spare lumber. Instead of letting these materials end up in a landfill, he finds folks who can put them to good use. Having been in the sanitation business since 1999, the satisfaction he gets from cleaning up his community is what has kept him going all these years.
“It means a lot to me because I’ve been living in this community for the last 50 years. And I’ve seen the transition take place with Ladyville. And I realized that garbage is a big thing for us. It’s a cultural thing for people like to throw garbage on the street. So we try to do it different here by trying to have bins at all the bus sheds, right? And try ask people to work with us to bag their stuff. If they have problems getting it to us, give us a call. We’ll go back and get it just to accommodate them so that the garbage go at the right spot.”
Once Yestrau gets her hands on the pallets, she meticulously removes the nails, then cleans, sands, and treats the planks. This process transforms them into high-quality wood, perfect for crafting affordable furniture for her clients.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t have beds or tables and stuff like that. And when I started the business, I said, you know what, these pallets are good. These pallets are, you know, and they don’t catch termites or anything. Why can’t we turn this into something? And they’re beautiful tables, portems, picnic tables.”
Miller stands by the belief that trash is everyone’s problem and goes out of his way to pick up trash from those that may not have the resources to dispose of it themselves.
“What happened is you have people that can’t afford for one reason or the other. And so what we will do, if we could carry it, if we know that we have to pass at that street and help one person on that street to get the garbage out, we do that. And that help, rather than the garbage going on the street side in some corner, we prefer to take it away.”
Melany Yestrau
“That’s the reason I like recycling. My thing, I love recycle. Those chairs you see right there, I turn into a bench. I love it, because if you can find, get something and do something out of it. Why not? You know, instead of having it thrown right there and, and just getting it waste.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
